OPINION

Photo Essay: My Mum's Cooking!
February 14, 2008
Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta

Ok, I am going to get into so many types of trouble for this essay. Lets see, my wife is going to get upset because I am praising my mum's cooking, my stomach's going to get upset because I will be cramping at the thought, my shirt will be upset with the drool, the vegetarians will be upset with the non-vegetarian food being cooked and so on and so forth. But, hey, it was GOOOOOOOD food. And when its grandkids wanting specific food, grandma went all overboard.

My mum's amazing, she has retired now, but she just retired as a full professor of geography, she acts on the stage, film and radio and has awards for them, she paints and sculpts, she was a very good classical dancer before the knees gave way, wonderful singer, she has got awards for her language skills and contributions to Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu and Bengali, she is busy gallivanting around the world (every year or so, she takes off to go around the world somewhere, her recent trip was to Egypt!), she cooks divinely. Oh!, she can ride, hunt and shoot.

She taught me how to skin and dress a rabbit and a pigeon! :). She is very well read and collects Ganesh figurines (a photo essay on that is forthcoming). She did the interior decoration as well as the architecting of our (and several other houses!), she knits the most amazing jumpers and even sewed my shirts and trousers when we used to be a bit tight for money. Very impressive, is me mum. And this year, if everything works out fine, we will write a book together. But that's jumping the gun, here are some of her culinary masterpieces.

So this is the jelly as little grand-daughter requested and I loved it, just look at that HUGE mouth and HUGE eyes.
And these are the prawns being prepared.
 
Golda Chingri (King Prawn Curry!)
 
Pulao Rice and plain rice.

Pineapple and Cherry Cake on the left, chocolate and loads of other stuff including rum and fruit Christmas cake on the right
Didu made a tiny chocolate cake just for me.
 
Baked fish, this is just yummy mummy for my tummy!




   
Roast Chicken, gosh, the entire house was permeated with absolutely divine aroma's all day long while this was cooking. The gravy at the bottom for those who wanted some stuff to go with the roti's. 
  
Three types of fish curry.

  


Boiled vegetables and she also made her own special mayonnaise. Yummy if absolutely terrible for my spreading waistline!.


This is one of my favorite breakfast dishes, sattu (made out of gram flour, i like it with some lemon, lots of jaggery and eat away!)
 
Cauliflower dry curry, perfect for travels or with roti's.
  
the traditional style of making tea, dump everything (tea leaves, water, sugar, cow juice) into a pan and bring to a ruthless boil, strain and serve.

Here's one of the full spread


Then there is my dad, the proud owner of 18 degrees in engineering, the archetypal absent-minded professor. He spent 6.5 minutes trying to figure out why on earth the microwave wasn't working despite him peering all over and pressing every button (and some lettering as well). His nod to cooking is restricted to "warming".Then he finally figured out that it needs to be plugged in. Once that little problem was solved, then the 2 samosas were warmed up and little Diya could eat them. He was so pleased and proud with his performance that we all had to admit that his "cooking" was magnitudes better than Mum's.

Full slide-show here.

Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta works in the city of London in various capacities in the financial sector. He has worked and travelled widely around the world. The articles in here relate to his current studies and are strictly his opinion and do not reflect the position of his past or current employer(s). If you do want to blame somebody, then blame my sister and editor, she is responsible for everything, the ideas, the writing, the quotes, the drive, the israeli-palestinian crisis, global warming, the ozone layer depletion and the argentinian debt crisis.
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#1
blokesablogin
February 14, 2008
03:59 AM

cho chweet! Happy valentines to your chweetie' parents.

#2
Tanay
URL
February 14, 2008
04:09 AM

bd sir, thanks for sharing this post. first and foremost, you need to be proud of your maa. also why don't you invite her to DC and ask her to make posts. am sure those are going to have a wide audience as it would cover food, culture, teaching and music.

now i envy you. you better know why ? of course, i had a virtual e-diet (through my popping eyes near my screen) to the satisfy myself

did you have tiger prawns even, and also i like one preparation, they use the head of the fish, its all cleaned and mashed and cooked with vegetables are used, we call it 'chincada'. very popular with people from the eastern part of india.

also bd there are few traits, that my maa shares with your maa, when it comes to music, dance and teaching. will share this post with my maa for sure.

#3
bd
February 14, 2008
04:19 AM

meenakshi, thanks for that, and lol, no, it wasnt for the VD bit, hate that poxy day!

#4
bd
February 14, 2008
04:25 AM

Tanay, thanks for the comment.

and yes, whenever i get homesick, I just fire up the slideshow and go lick the screen! lol

and yes, that preparation sounds familiar to me, that dish can be made with any fish head, I am more familiar with the rohu and katla head preps! :)

#5
Deepti Lamba
URL
February 14, 2008
05:41 AM

bd, damn it not fair!! I'm missing my mom's food sooo much now. And I agree with Meenakshi, its a lovely Valentine article for your parents.

Kim sent me poem mail a few days back:

A Woman's Poem
He didn't like the casserole
And he didn't like my cake,
He said my biscuits were too hard
Not like his mother used to make.


I didn't perk the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.


I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Then I turned around and
smacked the #$@! out of him...
Like his mother used to do.





#6
Aditi Nadkarni
February 14, 2008
06:51 AM

Its bloody 6 am in the morning here and now thanks to your post BD I am ravenously hungry!:)

.... while me mum is a pretty awesome cook as well, she ain't here to whip up something that looks as delicious as the stuff you have in your pictures.:(

But as someone who absolutely loves to cook, my big shout out to your mum. She sounds like a remarkable woman.

And may I also add: how very big hearted of you to put up such a lovely post about her (and on V'Day too!).

#7
bd
February 14, 2008
08:59 AM

sorry, aditi, my fault, lol, but yes, every time i see this, I feel hungry as well! :)

#8
PH
URL
February 14, 2008
05:31 PM

I just had 3 slices of pizza but ur post whipped up my appetite...off to the workplace kitchen:)

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